Three laboratories and a machine shop at the Boulder campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology have been shut down as a result of a recent safety audit conducted at the facility, the agency has announced.

The audit was conducted by NIST with the assistance of the Department of Energy, said Laura Ost, spokeswoman for NIST in Boulder.

She said that originally four laboratories and the machine shop were closed due to potential safety concerns for personnel working in the labs. However, one of the labs was reopened after the establishment of strengthened procedures.

Ben Stein, another NIST representative, said today that the closure of the three labs and workshop were not associated with the plutonium spill that occurred June 9 at the NIST Boulder campus.

He said the agency conducted the additional safety audit in an effort to identify any other safety issues at the facility.

Stein said that there are more than 300 lab rooms at the NIST campus and that the three closed rooms represent a very small percentage of the labs.

He said there also are about a dozen machine shops at the site.

The agency announced late Tuesday that it has contracted with Energy Solutions, a company licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to decontaminate the laboratory where the June plutonium spill occurred.

NIST said the great majority of the plutonium in the laboratory has been recovered and transferred to the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

In addition, a substantial amount of unused, legacy and excess chemicals have been “properly packaged and removed” from the Boulder campus by the facility’s regular waste-disposal contractor.

Richard Kayser, interim director of the NIST-Boulder laboratories, said the actions represent “important steps” for increasing all aspects of safety at the facility.

“Much still needs to be done, but we are grateful for the hard work of NIST staff and associates as well as the input we have been receiving from experts at agencies such as the Department of Energy,” Kayser said.

On July 30, a scathing 61-page report said that during testing at the Boulder campus to enhance America’s ability to detect “dirty bombs,” plutonium sources were obtained without management approval and handled by inexperienced and untrained researchers.

Researchers in the Boulder lab broke a vial holding a quarter gram of plutonium-containing powder, and some particles spilled. Officials said plutonium was detected in various parts of the building and two sinks, which prompted testing of the Boulder sewer system, where some of the contamination spread.

Specifically, investigators found that in trying to conduct tests and experiments that would enhance dirty-bomb detection:

Three plutonium sources were acquired without adequate hazard analysis or management approval. The wrong conclusions were reached regarding the hazards posed by the sources.

Inexperienced and untrained researchers began work on the detector project using the radioactive sources.

Researchers developed an inappropriate work plan, which involved the removal of glass-bottled sources from their secondary barriers, directly manipulating the glass-bottled source with ungloved hands and taping the bottled source to a fixed device in order to achieve a desired instrumental response. The glass bottle was broken, spilling the plutonium compound.

Plutonium was detected in about half of the 29 people who were near the June 9 plutonium spill. But none of those who received internal exposure is expected to experience any clinically significant health impacts, according to Ost.

In its announcement late Tuesday, the agency said that the city of Boulder has provided NIST with the initial results of the city’s testing and monitoring program, which searched for signs of plutonium in the city sewer system. The testing, so far, has revealed no readings significantly different from natural background radiation, said the agency. It said sludge samples also are being tested.

In addition, the agency announced Tuesday that James Turner, NIST deputy director who oversaw the initial investigation of the accident at the Boulder facility, is leaving NIST to accept a job at the Department of Commerce. He will be deputy assistant secretary for international affairs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Replacing him will be Patrick Gallagher, director of NIST’s Center for Neutron Research.

Gallagher, a physicist with extensive experience in national policy for scientific user facilities, has worked for 15 years at NIST.

Commerce Deputy Secretary John Sullivan said that Gallagher has a strong management and safety background and that under his guidance, the agency will move forward “developing and strengthening a comprehensive safety program for NIST.”

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